The enclosure radical — 囗 (wéi)

A wall all the way round — the same shape as 口 (mouth) but drawn larger and always closed. It encloses 国 (country), 园 (garden), 围 (to surround) and 困 (trapped — a tree inside a fence).

3 strokes 10 example characters High-frequency

At a glance

Radical
Pinyin
wéi
Meaning
Enclosure
Strokes
3 (3 strokes section)

Stroke order

Characters built on

Every character below contains . Meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator, so you can look any of them up in full there.

guó
Country (national - Chinese)
huí
Return (answer - circle - turn around - mw for occurrences)
yīn
Because (due to - cause - reason)
yuán
Garden
Diagram (picture - drawing - chart - plan)
tuán
Group (society - unite - round - ball - dumpling)
wéi
Encircles (surround)
kùn
Sleepy (tired - confused)
Four
yuán
Circle (round - Chinese monetary unit - tactful - to justify)

Mini-quiz — do you know these characters?

Five quick questions drawn from the characters above: see the character, pick its meaning. No sign-up, nothing saved.

Question 1 / 5 Correct: 0

Not enough dictionary meanings for a quiz on this radical — try the Character Radical Quiz instead.

— frequently asked questions

What does the Chinese radical 囗 mean?

囗 is pronounced wéi and means "enclosure". It is written in 3 strokes. A wall all the way round — the same shape as 口 (mouth) but drawn larger and always closed. It encloses 国 (country), 园 (garden), 围 (to surround) and 困 (trapped — a tree inside a fence).

Which characters use the 囗 radical?

Common examples include 国 (guó, Country (national - Chinese)), 回 (huí, Return (answer - circle - turn around - mw for occurrences)), 因 (yīn, Because (due to - cause - reason)), 园 (yuán, Garden). This page lists 10 of them with pinyin, meanings and audio.

How many strokes does 囗 have?

3. Radical dictionaries file it in the 3 strokes section, which is how you look up an unfamiliar character when you cannot guess its pronunciation.

Other 3-stroke radicals

Keep going

Watch any of these characters being written in the Stroke Order Animator, practise them on printable 田字格 sheets, hunt radicals against the clock in Radical Hunt, or read the background in The 100 Most Common Chinese Radicals and Chinese Character Etymology.